On the heels of our Friday Forum on cheating, I discovered a student cheating on a test.  Right in front of me, not subtly, just looking over at another student’s test!  

When students take exams, nothing is allowed on their desks.  They must spread out.  As I looked around during the exam, this student had to practically do a yoga move and use some x-ray vision to see far enough to see the other student’s score sheet.  When I realized it was actually happening, I took his test away from him and said, “You’re finished.”  I went back to my desk, heart pounding with frustration and disappointment.  The student sat there for several minutes then left.  

As students finished turning in their exams, several explained that they were glad I ‘finally’ caught him.  I was too but I wasn’t expecting how terrible I would feel about the situation.  It ruined my day.  And evening.  I had lunch with my friend the next day and we talked about it.  She mentioned that she caught a couple of students cheating and she lost sleep over it.  

Why do we take cheating so personally?  Going back to the wisdom from colleagues at the Friday Forum helped me to process the questions I had.  There are probably a number of other things going on in this student’s life that have nothing to do with this class.  Remembering as well, the good ole fundamental attribution error in psychology, that we must not believe that people’s actions always reflect the person’s character.